Before and After
by xBeautifulDreamerx
Summary: They met before the world went to shit and they fell for each other right away. What will happen to them when the dead start to rise? Will things ever be the same? Will they ever be safe? Will their relationship grow or die with the rest of the world. MATURE READERS ONLY


(Post-Apocalyptic)

"Jess!" I heard Sasha yell for me as she ran down the hall. I stopped and turned around to see the look of terror on her face and screams coming from around the corner. "What's going on?"

"Run!" she yelled grabbing my arm and spinning me around so that we were both running together.

"What's going on?" I said between breaths as our feet pounded against the hot black top.

"Just run," she said trying to keep up with me. We turned another corner and I turned my head to look back to try to see what we were running away from. And in the moment that it took me to turn my head I was flying backwards onto the ground. "Oh my god, Jess, get up!"

"Watch were yer goin," I heard a gruff voice say before a calloused hand reached out to me. I took it while rubbing my butt from where I had fallen and was yanked up. "Thanks," I said, now rubbing my shoulder.

"Jess," Sasha said nearly jumping up and down, "we have to go."

"Uh yeah," I said looking at the man in front of me. He was looking down at me since I only came up to his shoulders while I was wearing my flats. "I'm sorry," I said blushing a little noticing that neither of us had let go of each other's hands, "I didn't hurt you did I?"

"Nah, hardly even felt it," he said dropping my hand quickly.

"Jess," Sasha whined.

"I have to go; it was nice meeting you…" I said raising my eyebrow a little not knowing his name.

"Daryl," he said scratching the back of his neck while he smirked a little making my stomach flutter.

"Well Daryl it was nice to meet you," Sasha said stepping between us, "And I'm sure that Jess thought so to. Maybe we'll run into you again soon. But we really, really have to go." And with that Sasha grabbed my hand and pulled me around Daryl and down the sidewalk to where Delaney was waiting with the car. I glanced back at Daryl and saw him looking at the direction that we had come from, and then back to us. We locked eyes, and I tripped almost making us sprawl forwards onto the ground. "Jess! Watch where you are goin!" Sasha yelled at me as she flung open the door scarring Delaney in the process who had been putting lipstick on. I jumped into the back seat and saw that Delaney now had her favorite color of pink smeared across her face. I stifled a laugh and buckled my seat belt as Sasha was telling Delaney to go.

"Would you just hold on," Delaney said trying to wipe the lipstick off of her face.

"We need to go now," Sasha said looking out the window. That's when I started to hear the yelling from earlier. A group of people came running around the corner looking for something, and then they charged towards the car. "GO DELANEY!" Sasha yelled. Delaney put the car in gear and floored it almost hitting another car as she pulled out of the parking space.

"What did you do Sasha!" Delaney yelled as she flew through a yellow light.

"I ran into Mark," she said looking out the back window to see if we were still being followed.

"Your ex?" Delaney asked looking into her rearview mirror and licking her thumb so that she could wipe off what make up she still had on her face.

"Yes," Sasha sighed sinking down into her chair.

"So?" I asked taking my shoes off and rubbing my feet. Practice today had been long and my feet were killing me.

"Well…" she started burying her face into her hands and mumbling something that I couldn't understand.

"One more time?" Delaney asked looking over at her then back to the road. She was turning onto the long road to nowhere. We had a house at the very end of this street, the only thing was, we were the only house for miles. Delaney's father owned a construction company and had built our house here first. There were skeletons of houses all over the place here, and sometimes it was a little creepy being the only people here, but we liked the privacy and the quiet. Plus, our house was huge. Delaney's father had insisted that he would build us the best, and not to mention the biggest, house on the plot. We each had our own bedroom, bathroom and guest rooms, not that we had even been able to use the guest rooms yet. We were new here and we just wanted time to relax. We had a huge kitchen with a living room, dining room, and a "common" room which Delaney's mother insisted on. To many closets for me to want to count, a downstairs with a wine cellar, a movie room, an indoor and outdoor swimming pool with a sauna indoors, along with a workout room and several offices. There were a few other rooms that were still empty, Delaney's mother wanted to continue decorating the house, but Delaney had insisted otherwise saying that it was good enough and we really needed the privacy for school and practice.

After weeks of her mother arguing with her, she left saying her daughter would never understand her "artistic talents." We had all laughed at that one, and when we got to the house we went to one of the empty rooms that had a full length mirror in it and set it up like a dance studio. It was mostly for ballet, which was where I had just come from, but we did other dances too. We were, after all, going to a school for dancing, so we knew just about all kinds of dances. Delaney's favorite, which her parents always hated, was hip hop and salsa. Her parents thought that was too provocative for a young girl with her upbringing. Sasha specialized in hip hop and jazz, her personality and her dances went hand in hand. And while Delaney complained about her parents, Sasha just laughs, but we know that she's hurting. Sasha is an orphan, and she was never adopted.

I was what tied us all together. I was an orphan for a while, but I was adopted by my foster parents when I was fourteen and they worked for Delaney's parents. I stayed in touch with Sasha, even after my foster father passed away and we moved to Florida. When I came back to Georgia at eighteen, Delaney and I got back in touch and I introduced her to Sasha, after that everything fell in place. We moved in together when we were finishing our senior year of high school when we found out that we were all going to the same college. I loved to dance, I loved ballet, hip hop, step, jazz, ballroom, salsa, modern and every other kind there was. I had no favorites, I was always a fast learner and was ready to finish college, get hired to do all different kinds of jobs, and then retire early and get my own school and teach all kinds of dances there. But all of that changed.

"So you saw Mark and you did…" Delaney continued to question Sasha. Sasha was now twisting her long brown hair in her hands which she only did when she was worried.

"I might have keyed his car, slashed his tires, poured sugar into his gas tank and got caught doing so by the girl he cheated on me with who I then got into a fight with and ended up cutting her hair with a pocket knife," Sasha said in one breath.

"You did what?" Delaney yelled slamming on the breaks just in front of our endless driveway, another thing her father insisted on "for safety."

"You didn't!" I yelled at her, "Do you realize how much trouble you could be in!"

"It was self-defense!" she yelled back at me. I buried my face in my hands not ready to deal with all this. Delaney sighed and the car started to move again.

When we got in the garage and closed the door I put my shoes on and opened the door. "It's a good thing we love you," I said walking by Sasha and running my hand down my cherry racing motorcycle. It wasn't practical anywhere but on the racetrack, but I could run it on our makeshift race track in the back yard until the rest of the houses were put in. I loved my bike, but I knew I had to pick between riding and dancing, and dancing won. But that didn't mean that I didn't enjoy riding my bike when I could. My ex-boyfriend, Bobby, owned a racetrack. Well his father did, and they wanted me to ride for them, but I didn't want to give up on my dreams of being a professional dancer, which they understood. They let me use to the track whenever I wanted to, even after Bobby and I broke up he let me use it.

We tried to stay friends, but when we started dating other people we just couldn't keep it friendly. He told me that I could still use the track, but I figured it would be better if we just had nothing to do with each other.

As we walked inside Sasha jumped up on the counter and smiled. "So!" she started talking more to Delaney, but looking at me, "Jess made a new friend." Sasha winked at me as I felt my face heat up as Delaney turned to look at me.

"You did?"

"No, I just kind of ran into him and fell over."

"What's his name?"

"Daryl," I blurted out a little too quickly. And that was when the mocking began.

After we had our fun we all went off in our own ways to wind down for the night. Sasha went to practice her newer dance moves, Delaney went to practice playing the piano, and I changed and took my bike out back. It was darker by the time I got out there, but the lights Delaney's father put in for "protection," lit up the area well enough that it wouldn't matter how late I was out. But by the second lap I was cursing up a storm. "If her dad heard you, I'm pretty sure he would go into shock," Sasha said walking up to me.

"I guess it's a good thing that he's not here then," I said throwing my helmet to the ground and stomping away to the garage. Sasha followed me and stopped next to me as I examined all the boxes we had yet to unpack. "Your tools are in there somewhere aren't they," Sasha said trying to stifle her laughter.

"Yes," I hissed glaring at her then looking back to the boxes.

"There's a little car shop not too far from here. We could put it in the back of my truck and take it there tomorrow."

"You know how I feel about letting other people touch my bike."

"Well maybe you could get them to let you work on it there."

"They would never allow that. I would be a liability."

"Well just push them girls up and use that southern charm you use when you want something," she said poking at my chest. I brushed her hand away and nodded. Sasha then helped me load up my bike into the back of her truck and then we went inside.

The next morning, before classes, Sasha Delaney and I jumped into the truck. We only took it on nice days because one of us had to ride in the open bed of the truck. Of course that was usually me. So, I did my makeup and braided my hair so that it wouldn't turn into the wind blown sex hair style as we drove to the mechanic. As Sasha turned the truck off Delaney helped me get the bike down. When it was on the ground Sasha said something to me. I turned, still standing on the tailgate, tripped and felt the world fly past me as I rushed to the ground as Delaney screamed out to me.

But instead of hitting the hard ground, I hit something just a little bit softer then concrete. I looked up into the blue eyes of my savior, "Daryl," I said softly trying to catch my breath.

"Ya hurt?"

"Uh…no," I said blushing, "Could you put me down?" It was Daryl's turn to turn red as he quickly put me down. The world was still spinning around me and I reached out and grabbed his arm to steady myself. When I could see straight I smiled up at him and said, "We have to stop meeting like this." He smirked and nodded as I let go of his arm. I looked at my friends that were just standing there like idiots. "Daryl, this is Delaney." He held his hand out and Delaney shook it.

"Told you," Sasha said in a hushed voice. Delaney covered her mouth with her hand as she tried not to laugh as I glared at Sasha. Daryl stood there obviously confused and very uncomfortable. "Sorry about them," I said turning my back to them.

"S'okay," Daryl said crossing his arms, "What can I do for ya," he said rather then asked.

"Well," Sasha started but I cut her off.

"Never mind her," I said flipping her off behind my back making Delaney laugh and Sasha gasp in mock terror, "I was wondering if you guys had tools here that I could use on my bike."

"I could take a look at it. See what I could do," he said looking at the bike now.

"See," I said fiddling with my fingers, "I don't really feel comfortable with other people working on my bike. Especially if I'm not here. I was hoping that maybe I could work on it?"

"Ya don like other people workin on yer bike, but ya don't have the tools to work on it?"

"I just haven't been able to unpack that far yet."

"Well," he said standing up straight and looking at me, "I can't jus let ya work in here. Ma boss would kill me. But ma big brother has a bike n he won't be home for a few more weeks. If ya want I can bring them to yer house and ya can use em. N if ya need a hand, I know ma way around a bike."

"I," I started but Sasha cut me off.

"She would love that!" Sasha pushed past me with a piece of paper and a pen. She scribbled down my cell number and the address. "It won't be hard to find," she said winking at him.

"Hn," he muttered looking at the address. Sasha then hurried back to the truck and jumped in, Delaney followed. "Well that was awkward," I said playing with my braid. He smirked at me and rubbed the back of his head. "So," I said twisting the end of the braid around my fingers, "See you around four? That's when I get out of school."

"I get off of work here at five thirty."

"Ok well just give me a call when you're on your way?"

"Sure," I said still smirking.

"Do you need help putting the bike into your truck?"

"Nah, don't worry your pretty little head. I won't scratch it."

"You think I'm pretty?" I said teasingly. But when he turned red I felt me face heat up. Then I about jumped out of my skin when Sasha honked the horn. "We have to go!" she yelled.

"Deja vu," I said smiling at him and climbing into the bed of the truck. He shut the tail gate and I sat down and waved good bye as Sasha took off towards school.

(A/N – Let me know what you think! I feel like I'm really going to get into this story! I have so many ideas but you have to let me know if you want to hear them!)


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